The subject of the present invention is a cooking aid of the lump type, a process for its preparation and an apparatus for carrying out the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,645 to Risler et al. describes a dehydrated product in the form of grains which are instantly soluble in water, and have a continuous porous structure and a smooth surface. These products can be obtained by extruding, in a vessel where a subatmospheric pressure exists, a food material comprising fruit, vegetable or seed extracts, starches, gums or alginates, meat, fish or yeast extracts, and/or protein hydrolysates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,693 to Risler et al. describes a food product consisting of a dehydrated mass in the form of a powder or of flakes of milk, fat, gelatinized starch, meat and vegetable extracts or protein hydrolysates, and of a filling of partially dehydrated vegetable, meat or pasta pieces. The filling is packaged separately from the dehydrated mass.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a cooking aid in an attractive form having, at the surface, visually identifiable pieces of vegetables, meat or other materials or fillings and comprising fat and/or a polysaccharide and pulverulent flavoring ingredients.
To this effect, a cooking aid of the lump type according to the present invention has the shape of a lump with a granular surface and comprises a flavoring core and a coating comprising a binding base and the visually identifiable components.
The invention also relates to a process for the preparation of a cooking aid of the lump type, comprising the steps of:
preparing a flavoring core;
conditioning the core at temperature of about 5-25xc2x0 C.;
preparing a binding base;
adding visual components to the binding base; and
coating the flavoring core with the binding base and visual components.
The process further comprises conditioning the core at temperature of about 5-25xc2x0 C. before coating with the binding base and visual components. The flavoring core may be prepared by mixing together about 30-50 parts of salt, about 10-20 parts of glutamate, and about 10-20 parts of fat. The binding base may be prepared by mixing a fat with a viscosity increasing component, such as a starch, maltodextrin, gum or alginate.
The cooking aid of the lump type according to the present invention therefore effectively has, at the surface, visually identifiable pieces of vegetables, meat or other filling in an attractive granular form.
The process and apparatus according to the present invention make it possible to prepare this cooking aid of the lump type in a simple manner and in a limited number of steps.